It’s been a whirlwind of firsts for the first-year Class of 2026, starting with Opening Day on Aug. 31 right on through to the first classes of the academic year a week later.

In between were AESOP trips, the first meetings of First-Year Seminars, and Convocation, marking the official opening of the academic year.

After a damp morning of moving in, the clouds broke and students and their families enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sun.

By mid-afternoon, campus puddles were gone, and everyone headed to the Historic Quad to hear welcomes from Leigh Weisenberger, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, President Clayton Spencer.

“Whatever path has brought you here, I want to welcome you to �ֲ���ý with joy, and warmth, and arms wide open,” she said. “Students, I wish you all good things as you meet your classmates and your professors, and settle in. Families, safe travels home.”

After goodbyes and hugs, and some tears, the Class of 2026 got ready for the myriad experiences awaiting them.

Thursday and Friday were spent getting a taste of academics in First-Year Seminar gatherings. Then came with three days and two nights of AESOP adventures on and off campus, the first overnight trips since 2019.

All compass points were covered: north to Baxter State Park, west to the White Mountains, east to Acadia National Park, and south to Portland. Not to mention nearby trips, to Nezinscot Farm and Lewiston-Auburn itself, exploring the Androscoggin River and the Great Falls, Museum L-A, and the Basilica of St. Peter and Paul.

Surfing, knitting, drawing and painting, and digging potatoes were just a few of the activities they enjoyed, reflecting a re-designed AESOP program, including affinity-based trips, to make AESOP more accessible and inclusive.

When Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 of Amherst, Mass., first started at �ֲ���ý, he wanted to try anything and everything that was available to him. “Just because it’s an option,” he says.

Since then, as he’s learned more about what interests him, he’s let go of some pursuits while taking a deeper dive into others — including both mathematics and the performing arts.

A mathematics major and French minor, he’s a member of the a cappella group Crosstones and the music director of the Robinson Players, the student theater company.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

For Findlen-Golden, math serves as an organizing principle in his life.  “Math manages to work its way into a lot of places that I didn’t expect,” he says. “It can be math in the perspective of music or through the perspective of history and education, which is a lot of what I’ve done here outside of academics.”

As he completes his math major, Findlen-Golden has similarly dived deep into biomathematics, learning how best to model the spread of diseases. Along the way, he’s learned how to embrace the more subjective side of his discipline.

Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 (left) and El Khansaa Kaddioui ’20 of Elhajeb, Morocco, talk with Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer during their biomathematics seminar in Hathorn Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“I’ve always been a very pure mathematician: I like working with straight numbers,” he explains. In the past, “whenever it gets into interpretability, like modeling complex behaviors or patterns in nature, I’ve always been a little intimidated because as much as I enjoy being creative, I also like things that have objective truth to them. There’s a bit of a simplicity in that.”

Yet once again, math has shown him a path, and he’s discovering new satisfaction as he’s explored biomathematics in his senior year, including epidemiology and disease spread.

“It’s shown me that there can be this beautiful blend of interpretability and subjectivity to something that is very objective. You have this objective language to describe subjective opinions and subjective patterns that can be modeled, interpreted in various ways.”

From welcoming greetings to parting hugs, from checking out new digs to checking out camping gear, �ֲ���ý’ newest students experience Opening Day on Aug. 26, 2019.

It’s one thing to document the little moments of Mount David Summit, the individual posters and snippets of conversations and stories of personal journeys.

It’s another to capture the totality within the glass walls of Perry Atrium — the culmination of dozens of students’ education, the pride of countless parents and professors, the knowledge students have contributed to their fields, spread out over hours of poster sessions.

Watch the entire Summit go by — as much as a single camera could capture — in this time-lapse video.

It’s 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Commons, and your senses are on high alert as Dining Services prepares the evening meal.

There’s the smell of baked goods. The sting in your eyes from freshly diced onions. The flicker of flame inside the brick oven. And all around, quick conversations as staff glide past one another.

Before you realize it, an hour has passed, the doors open, the students flood in.

Dinner, and your taste buds, are now served.

Students patiently wait in line at the grill to dig into General Tso's chicken and rice.

A room with a view: Commons seen from Central Avenue.

Dining Services diverts more than 80 percent of its waste to composting, local pig farmers, and recycling, a major reason �ֲ���ý has a Gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

First cook Tim Reynolds and third cook Jake Morse pose for a portrait before slinging pies at the brick oven.

Sous chef Michael Staffenski peels an onion as he works through an entire bushel, all without shedding a tear.

“Food is nourishment. It makes you whole,” says Michael Staffenski, Dining Services sous chef.

The “whole” in this sense also means the whole �ֲ���ý community, which comes together in the college’s single dining hall.

“The students live here, so this is their home, this is their kitchen,” Staffenski continues. “It’s our mission to provide all the things that their kitchen at home does, whether it’s an ear to listen or the comfort of warm soup when you’re not feeling well. It’s support: a little bit of everything.”

And there’s fun in the kitchen, too, For Daisy Taylor, bakery supervisor, the fun comes “when I get to be adventurous.”

Sure, she and her colleagues turn out the beloved cookies and muffins. “That’s pretty cookie-cutter,” she says, pun intended. But when a catering order comes in, “I get to put my own little spin on things. I definitely like that, and I think people appreciate what we put out. It’s a good feeling.”

Ricky Michalak, a Dining Services first cook, was handling the vegan station Tuesday night. One approach he uses is to “take meals that I like personally and see how I can make them vegan.“

One of his favorite creations is the Thai lettuce wrap made with fried tempeh. “They’re really sweet, really good. Even non-adventurous eaters will love it.”

And he doesn’t mind if students, famous for their ad hoc creations, don’t use the wrap as a wrap, “instead sprinkling it on their own salad or doing whatever with it. It all works out very well.

“It’s a busy station. Fun and challenging,” he adds. “I feel like everyone should be challenged at whatever they do.”

At 8:33 on a recent Thursday night, a few miles from campus, a white butane lighter ignited some kindling, and soon flames illuminated smiles on faces gathered around a campfire.

As the burning wood snapped and popped, and smoke mixed with incoming fog, students who’d traded dorm rooms for sleeping bags and stars began to toast s’mores at the �ֲ���ý Outing Club Lean-to.

Light the marshmallow on fire for the toasted look, or go for the slow, golden brown? "I'm a slow roaster, but I usually end up burning it due to impatience," says Megan Detels '20 of Marblehead, Mass. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Chandler Ryan '19 of Delmar, N.Y., creates an assembly line for s'mores: a marshmallow (to be toasted) and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Build the fire teepee-style or like a log cabin? They choose log cabin. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Matthew Berdon '19 of Hartsdale, N.Y., chops kindling while others forage for dry deadwood. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Wearing headlamps, students roll out sleeping bags before starting the campfire. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

“There is something very satisfying about building a fire,” said Megan Detels ’20 of Marblehead, Mass. “I love smelling like campfire all the next day. When I smell my hair throughout the day it reminds me that I woke up outside, to the rising sun.”

“Something simple like spending a night in the lean-to breaks up our very scheduled lives,” said Nellie Breen ’21 of Pasadena, Calif. “It reminds us to appreciate the bigger picture.”

It was Breen’s first trip to the lean-to, and a very intentional one. “I wanted to push outside my comfort zone and embrace the uncertainty of meeting new people,” she said. “We’re lucky to be part of a community where people are so welcoming and supportive of new experiences.”

“Life at �ֲ���ý can get pretty hectic,” said Chandler Ryan ’19 of Delmar, N.Y. “It can be such a reprieve to spend a night not worrying about schoolwork and just focus on building a fire and eating s’mores and getting a good night’s sleep.”

Built in 1999 as a Short Term project by �ֲ���ý students — including Ben Ayers ‘99, who now does economic sustainability work in Nepal — the 10-by-17 lean-to sits within the Marden-Chittick Refuge, 200 acres of land that Judy Marden ’66 gave to the Androscoggin Land Trust as a conservation easement.

“I hope by providing the space for the lean-to, I’m doing some part to bring more kids outdoors,” said Marden, whose long and active involvement with the BOC dates to her college days when, she recalled, BOC leaders “led me up Tumbledown Mountain the first weekend of my freshman year. They changed my life — for the good!”

“I think the most important task for the BOC is to get people out on trips who might not otherwise go on them,” Ryan agreed. As a first-year, she was “definitely nervous about going on trips. The solid, approachable leadership of some strong women at the helm of the Outing Club encouraged me to get involved.”

Follow the Class of 2022 from Opening Day and into the next, the poignant first 24 hours as the newest �ֲ���ý students begin to find their own places in the �ֲ���ý community.
 

Reunion is a time to reunite on campus with classmates and friends — but also for a �ֲ���ý community spanning 65 years to gather and celebrate.

On Friday evening, alumni and their families and friends, from the Class of 1948 through the Class of 2013, ooh’ed and ahh’ed at spectacular fireworks over Lake Andrews.

The following morning, after a 5k race and mimosas, everyone lined up on the Historic Quad for a Reunion centerpiece: the Alumni Parade. Classes cheered each other on as they marched or rode.